Porphyrio sp. A (New Ireland Swamphen)

[sebbe67]

scientific name?

This species once lived on New Ireland, it probably surived on the island as long as the 1620, but hunting compered with habitat lost made it extinct.

[Deleted]

Hi !

Porphyrio sp. not more yet, sorry !

[another specialist]

Another undescribed rail, Porphyrio new sp., is known from 19 bones (14 skeletal elements). This huge flightless swamphen is much larger than the extinct Porphyrio paepae of the Marquesas (30) and taller but less stout than Porphyrio mantelli of New Zealand. Porphyrio new sp. even exceeds in size the extinct Porphyrio kukwiedei of New Caledonia (25).



www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/96/5/2563


At least 50 species of birds are represented in 241 bird bones from five late Pleistocene and Holocene archaeological sites on New Ireland (Bismarck Archipelago, Papua New Guinea). The bones include only two of seabirds and none of migrant shorebirds or introduced species. Of the 50 species, at least 12 (petrel, hawk, megapode, quail, four rails, cockatoo, two owls, and crow) are not part of the current avifauna and have not been recorded previously from New Ireland. Larger samples of bones undoubtedly would indicate more extirpated species and refine the chronology of extinction. Humans have lived on New Ireland for ca. 35,000 years, whereas most of the identified bones are 15,000 to 6,000 years old. It is suspected that most or all of New Ireland's avian extinction was anthropogenic, but this suspicion remains undetermined. Our data show that significant prehistoric losses of birds, which are well documented on Pacific islands more remote than New Ireland, occurred also on large, high, mostly forested islands close to New Guinea.

[another specialist]

Extinct/extirpated species make up 31% of Pleistocene bones and 21% of Holocene bones (Table 3). Among the three sites with >50 bird bones, Panakiwuk has the fewest bones of extinct species, but these date primarily to 10,000-8,000 B.P., suggesting that much extinction already had taken place by that time. For the two flightless rails (Gallirallus new sp., Porphyrio new sp.), 32 of 34 bones are from Pleistocene strata, suggesting that the two isolated bones may be out of context. However, three other extinct/extirpated species have records at 6,000 B.P. (Table 4), suggesting that climate and vegetation changes during the Pleistocene/Holocene transition were not important factors in their extinction. On the other hand, if Lapita peoples in Remote Oceania are any indication, late Holocene horticulturalists may have been just as destructive to bird life as the late Pleistocene hunter/gatherers.

www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/96/5/2563

[another specialist]

Giant Swamphen, Porphyrio sp. (prehistoric)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porphyrio

need more info to confirm if this was holocene or Pleistocene

[sebbe67]

It was a pleistone extinction

Source: Extinction and Biogeography of Tropical Pacific Birds

[another specialist]

Thanks for the confirmation sebbe

Do you what the book says about this species?

[sordes]

I think this is not always clear to say when a species became extinct. There are many animals which are known from only from prehistoric material, but became most probably extinct in the holocene.

[amongthylacines]

I've to agree with Sordes,
I finisherd reading Steadman two weeks ago (I've to do something masochistic, while enjoying a magnificent bottle of Caol ila and some splendid music of 16Horsepower) and he claims (and in my opinion rightly so) that most (if not all) of the rallidae were wiped out by our noble friendly equilibrium-savages of Rousseau.
They ravaged the isles like they are (on a greater scale) putting a holocaust on our oceans.
Still we love the Japanese and the Chinese
And absolutely nothing will change.

Steadman wrote about the (well not exactly wrote about but you could visualise it anyway) about the Edens and Walhalla's of not so ancient times.
The dreamers are still trying to save the Baiji
The dying have turned toward the soothing nothingness of paleontolgy.

Still
I wouldn't be spurised that more fossiles would turn up on all the 'peaceful' island of the future

[sordes]

I suppose really most extinct bigger animals on islands, which are known from the last 15000 years or so, were hunted by humans to extinction, and did not die by natural causes. Especially on islands which are in tropical regions, and which were not affected by the ice-ages, it seems most probably. For example the cuban sloths and ground sloths. Some of them are only known from pleistocene fossils, but it is really highly probable that all of them became just extinct in the holocene after the colonisation of the islands by humans.

[another specialist]

Aug 7, 2007 19:13:47 GMT @sebbe67 said:

It was a pleistone extinction

Source: Extinction and Biogeography of Tropical Pacific Birds

While looking at this book a lot of species are listed as prehistoric in the tables just like Porphyrio kukwiedei for example but have been listed as early holocene.

So moved back to holocene extinction.

[another specialist]

Extinction and Biogeography of Tropical Pacific Birds
By David W. Steadman

[Deleted]

By the way, from where should this strange Giant Swanphen come from?

Isn't it just identical with Porphyrio sp. from New Ireland?

Where, away from Wikipedia, can this name be found?

[Deleted]

Ah, see:

Giant Swamphen, Porphyrio sp. (New Ireland, Melanesia)
Mangaia Swamphen, Porphyrio sp. (Mangaia, Cook Islands) (not to genus Pareudiastes)
New Ireland Swamphen, Porphyrio sp. (New Ireland, Melanesia)

from:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_Quaternary_prehistoric_birds

Again, where can I find this name, except from Wikipedia?

[Deleted]

And ....

"Another undescribed rail, Porphyrio new sp., is known from 19 bones (14 skeletal elements). This huge flightless swamphen is much larger than the extinct Porphyrio paepae of the Marquesas (30) and taller but less stout than Porphyrio mantelli of New Zealand. Porphyrio new sp. even exceeds in size the extinct Porphyrio kukwiedei of New Caledonia (25). "

from:

www.pnas.org/content/96/5/2563.full

... mentions only one species of Porphyrio from New Ireland, so cannot be the source of both of the names.

[Deleted]

And finally ...:

www.pnas.org/content/96/5/2563.full.pdf

... does mention Porphyrio sp. and Porphyrio porphyrio, the recent Purple Swamphen, nothing more.